NEW MILFORD — Local zoning officials must decide in the coming months whether a former funeral home should be converted into multifamily housing.
MIR Properties LLC has proposed converting the former Colonial Funeral Home at 87 Park Lane Road into six units of housing, including two affordable units. The development would include associated parking, lighting, landscaping and utility improvements. The company has hired CCA, LLC in Brookfield as its engineer.
The company aims to invest about $900,000 in the project, said Riaz Uddin, properties manager for MIR Properties. While the project’s construction cost was originally estimated at $115,000, he said the cost “could go up a little more”
The former funeral home’s proximity to Route 202 and its walkability make it ideal for housing, Uddin said.
“This will be a nice place for people to live and use the beauty of the town,” he said.
The project is before the Zoning Commission, which approved a 50-day extension on the project’s site plan application during its Oct. 25 meeting. The developer requested to waive the required existing conditions map, stormwater management plan, traffic study and soil erosion and sediment control plan
“We’re not going to do any development there — we’re going to use the existing building,” Uddin said. “We’re just going to remodel the inside.”
New Milford Zoning Commission Vice Chairperson Charles Bogie raised concerns that one of the units that would be designated as affordable is larger than the other, so he felt they wouldn’t meet requirements that affordable housing dwellings be the same size and quality as the market rate dwellings, according to meeting minutes.
The commission discussed the need for a general floor plan and how it’d be beneficial to have an architect see what would work best within the building, the meeting minutes state.
Laura Regan, zoning enforcement officer, said she consulted with the town’s Building Department, which confirmed architectural plans would be needed for the project’s building permit, according to the minutes.
Uddin said MIR Properties has to go over a few project items with the town and resubmit the site application, though he said he couldn’t disclose what those items entailed.
